Chemical Strain of Graphite-Based Anode during Lithiation and Delithiation at Various Temperatures

Electrochemical lithiation/delithiation of electrodes induces chemical strain cycling that causes fatigue and other harmful influences on lithium-ion batteries. In this work, a homemade in situ measurement device was used to characterize simultaneously chemical strain and nominal state of charge, especially residual chemical strain and residual nominal state of charge, in graphite-based electrodes at various temperatures. The measurements indicate that raising the testing temperature from 20°C to 60°C decreases the chemical strain at the same nominal state of charge during cycling, while residual chemical strain and residual nominal state of charge increase with the increase of temperature. Furthermore, a novel electrochemical-mechanical model is developed to evaluate quantitatively the chemical strain caused by a solid electrolyte interface (SEI) and the partial molar volume of Li in the SEI at different temperatures. The present study will definitely stimulate future investigations on the electro-chemo-mechanics coupling behaviors in lithium-ion batteries.

Tunnel Encapsulation Technology for Durability Improvement in Stretchable Electronics Fabrication

Great diversity of process technologies and materials have been developed around stretchable electronics. A subset of them, which are made up of zigzag metal foil and soft silicon polymers, show advantages of being easy to manufacture and low cost. However, most of the circuits lack durability due to stress concentration of interconnects entirely embedded in elastic polymer silicone such as polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). In our demonstration, tunnel encapsulation technology was introduced to relieve stress of these conductors when they were stretched to deform in and out of plane. It was realized by dissolving the medium of Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA), previous cured together with circuits in polymer, to form the micro-tunnel which not only guarantee the stretchability of interconnect, but also help to improve the durability. With the protection of tunnel, the serpentine could stably maintain the designed shape and electrical performance after 50% strain cycling over 20,000 times. Finally, different materials for encapsulation were employed to provide promising options for applications in portable biomedical devices which demand duplicate distortion.

DESIGNING DIELECTRIC ELASTOMERS OVER MULTIPLE LENGTH SCALES FOR 21ST CENTURY SOFT MATERIALS TECHNOLOGIES

ABSTRACT Dielectric elastomers (DEs) constitute an increasingly important category of electroactive polymers. They are in a class of generally soft materials that, upon exposure to an electric stimulus, respond by changing size, shape, or both. Derived from network-forming macromolecules, DEs are lightweight, robust and scalable, and they are capable of exhibiting giant electroactuation strains, high electromechanical efficiencies, and relatively low strain-cycling hysteresis over a broad range of electric fields. Due primarily to their attractive electromechanical attributes, DEs are of growing interest in diverse biomedical, (micro)robotic, and analytical technologies. Since the seminal studies of these electroresponsive materials (initially fabricated mainly from chemically cross-linked acrylic and silicone elastomers), advances in materials design over multiple length scales have resulted in not only improved electromechanical performance but also better mechanistic understanding. We first review the fundamental operating principles of DEs developed from conventional elastomers that undergo isotropic electroactuation and then consider more recent advances at different length scales. At the macroscale, incorporation of oriented fibers within elastomeric matrices is found to have a profound impact on electroactuation by promoting an anisotropic response. At the mesoscale, physically cross-linked thermoplastic elastomer gel networks formed by midblock-swollen triblock copolymers provide a highly tunable alternative to chemically cross-linked elastomers. At the nanoscale, the chemical synthesis of binetwork and bottlebrush elastomers permits extraordinarily enhanced electromechanical performance through targeted integration of inherently prestrained macromolecular networks.

Investigation of Stress Stabilization Behavior of Type 316 Steel

Some materials are designed to operate at high temperature environments with high thermal gradients and will be subject to thermal and mechanical cyclic strains. Under these cyclic temperatures and strains, thermo-mechanical fatigue (TMF) and low cycle fatigue (LCF) failure occur which will lead to the initiation of damage and cracking and subsequent crack growth. In this paper the numerical and experimental investigations of stress stabilization of 316FR steel subjected to strain cycling in the temperature range of 400–650 °C has been presented. The material exhibited both cyclic and nonlinear kinematic hardening behavior. In this paper the finite element analysis of cyclic loading of the materials was based on a direct method to use the test data from a stabilized cycle in combination with the hysteresis strain energy concept for damage derivation.

The Dang Van Criterion for Fatigue Design

The present work intends to evaluate, using simple, exemplary cases, the importance of a full elasto-plastic analysis in fatigue design. A strain cycling situation (-ε to ε) was modelled with ABAQUS considering two situations: firstly a linear σ vs. ε relationship was assumed, and secondly, the real cyclic σ vs. ε curve was used to model each cycle, which includes a small plastic deformation. The case of change of cross section in a steel shaft subjected to constant torsion and cyclic bending was analysed through finite element modelling using ABAQUS.

A Cyclic Softening Plastic Model of Carbon Steel 45 under Uniaxial Cyclic Straining

Based on the characteristic of cyclic softening of the quenched and tempered Carbon steel 45, a cyclic plastic constitutive model was proposed to describe the cyclic behavior under symmetrical and unsymmetrical strain cycling with different strain amplitudes. In this model, the phenomenon of the decrease of the up yield limit stress with the increase of strain in the initial 1/4 cycle was taken into account. The proposed evolution equations of the yield size and backstress can simulate the cycling softening under symmetrical and unsymmetrical strain cycling well. The results indicated that either the simulated shape of the cyclic softening hysteresis loops or the evolution of stress amplitude with the increase of the cyclic number during the low cycle fatigue coincides with the experimental ones very well.